Wow, Derrick is in trouble.

That’s my first thought after I realize I’m the first guest to arrive at this dinner party. I step inside, Derrick takes my coat, and I notice the living room is in utter chaos.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” he says.

He needs some help — fast, decorating the room before the guest of honor arrives. That guest being his good friend Carlos, who doesn’t know that Derrick is throwing him a surprise birthday dinner with about a dozen guests, some of whom he’s never met before.

And, of course, Derrick’s only borrowing someone else’s apartment in Brooklyn for the evening, and Derrick doesn’t have a lot of decorating supplies or skill, and Derrick is quickly running out of time. Carlos, being fashion-forward, tends to be picky about appearances, so I’m thinking these dollar store birthday cards aren’t going to cut it. Regardless, I’m handed a few spools of ribbon and a pair of scissors, with a desperate plea from Derrick to do something.

Another guest, Jen, teaches a few of us how to make tissue paper pom-poms as she casually tosses off phrases like, “Oh, I used to make these as a kid!” And we somehow manage to hang up a “happy birthday” banner with a few weak pieces of tape by attaching it to some existing Christmas lights.

“Do you have any thumbtacks?” I ask Derrick; he shakes his head no and runs off to answer the buzzer. Again.

And in the midst of the mad scramble, the catering team are attempting to serve us hors d’oeuvres, as we’re frantically blowing up balloons and signing cards. The two servers begin to get antsy. The doorbell keeps ringing, but Carlos still isn’t here. Meanwhile, I’m wondering why Derrick’s girlfriend Rebecca seems to be missing from guest list.

Finally, Carlos arrives, with an entire entourage in tow, and he does not seem happy at all to be there.

I think the show has started already… but I’m not entirely sure.

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And that’s the whole point of City of Dreams by Show:UP!, who hold intimate dinner parties in real homes and apartments all over the country, creating episodic immersive experiences which build over the course of multiple months. (This particular episode of City of Dreams takes place sometime after episode 1’s disastrous party hosted by Rebecca at an NYC art gallery last fall.)

Lead by Creative Directors William Bryant Miles and Nickolas Vaughan, as well as Culinary Director Shellie Porter, the creators want us to think of these as “dinner parties hosted by your closest friends that you’ve never met in a place that you’ve never been.” In their universe, larger-than-life personas take the place of your typical “murder mystery.” Each guest attends as themselves instead of an assigned character. The creators want us to embrace a different kind of theatre that takes eating, drinking, talking, social media, and real human connection into account. The characters created by Show:UP! have Instagram accounts and update them in real time during the shows; guests may also receive a text message from one of the characters during the performance, to pull them even more into their universe.

Typically the performers in City of Dreams are given a rough idea of how the night will go but are left to fill in the blanks as they see fit, which means a lot of thinking on their toes. Intrepid guests can jump right into the action if they wish, all while enjoying their three-course vegetarian-friendly meal. Each evening is highly unpredictable as a group of strangers and actors sits down to eat (my experience had 13 people at the table), drink wine (and there is lots of wine), and engage in conversation. The conversation meanders from food allergies to gender pay gaps to Real Housewives to the relative merits of Los Angeles over New York City.

To a guest, it’s entirely unclear who is a cast member and who’s a member of the audience, especially when some uninvited guests show up and crash the party later. One attendee finds a framed photo inside of the apartment; she is dumbfounded to recognize herself digitally inserted into a picture with one of the other attendees. Another guest later confesses she was bewildered when Derrick began sending her text message instructions: convince Carlos to leave the bar, blindfold him, and walk him over to the dinner party.

So is the person seated next to you at City of Dreams “in on it” or merely a super-fan? Is she a performer or just really into the current conversation? The lines are always blurred in City of Dreams, with a roughly 1:4 performer to guest ratio at the party I attended. But don’t dwell too long on that question, because soon enough the melodrama escalates and wild accusations start flying: secret romances, falling outs between friends, and the exact status of missing significant others.

Are Troy and Derrick secretly together? And why did Carlos and Rebecca stop speaking? Is Derrick really going to leave Rebecca behind and move to the West Coast? And where is Rebecca, anyway?

Attending City of Dreams feels somewhere between an alternate reality game, a Millennial soap opera, and getting dropped into a sitcom set, with hilariously entertaining results. Just as in life, the creators intend for their characters’ drama to also unfold in real time, as new characters get woven into the story. Expect bits and pieces of information show up on Instagram in between episodes. Perhaps it’s a bit much to expect answers to all of these questions in one evening, especially after Carlos storms out in a huff.

So how can we get to the truth of what’s going on in City of Dreams? I suppose we’ll just have to follow along online and wait for the next episode.

Episodes 2A and 2B of City of Dreams ran in NYC during February 2018 and cost $125. Interested in attending future episodes? Episodes don’t repeat (for now) but you can get recaps on the the Show:UP! web site.

Follow the company on Instagram for the announcement of Episode 3.

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